Plot Twist
by Alatar Maia
Summary: Natasha's over at Clint's house when the surprise comes, and she's totally going to hold this over him forever.


**Personally I didn't like Clint's 'family' storylline that much. It seemed kind of pointless and didn't serve much of a purpose, and kind of lacked any lead-up except in like the first twenty minutes of the movie. Laura herself didn't seem to have much depth, serving only as 'the pregnant wife' and a completely flat character. The kids were cute but also not much of a point.  
**

 **That said, this idea was too cute not to write. [Laura's backstory is taken from a headcanon on a tumblr post that I can't link to since I lost track of it].  
**

 **[Psst - they need a safehouse? You know who would have been an amazing character to include? _Kate Bishop.]_**

 **[Also this is slightly AU, where Bruce never left and he and Natasha never had that horrible, horrible forced romance.]  
**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers, and Joss Whedon definitely shouldn't [Russo bros please salvage the mess that AoU gave you to work with]**

* * *

"Actually..." Laura smiled down at Natasha, in a way that was both apologetic and excited. "It's a Nathaniel."

Natasha's smile disappeared.

"Traitor," She whispered to Laura's pregnant belly.

* * *

It wasn't like Natasha hadn't _known_ about Laura before.

She'd been the first to know when Clint had married here - shotgun, rushed, but he'd thought it was a good idea. She'd thought he was insane, marrying a woman who already had two kids, did she even know what he really did for a living?

Clint had been convinced.

So had Laura [and she'd gotten _all_ the dirty details of their job and the risks that came with it, Natasha made sure that Clint told her, and the fact that the woman seemed no less determined to go through with it made Natasha view her with grudging respect].

Natasha didn't view her as an _enemy -_ Clint was a friend, a close one, and they owed each other their lives ten times over because of ops or other missions done in SHIELD's name.

Yes, she had an arrow necklace.

Clint had one with an hourglass, but like the embarrassed, gender-role-conforming man that he was, he hid it under his clothes.

They had history.

Natasha had always thought that the least he could do was name his kid [ _his_ kid!] after her.

Then the kid had to go and defect.

* * *

Natasha was there for the planning of Nathaniel's third birthday. Clint had insisted on it, for some reason, and she privately admitted that it was nice being able to take a day off and pretending there was nothing to worry about other than the color of the balloons and whether anyone would be able to make it out to the farm on such short notice.

Laura was getting involved in it, even though she'd just come inside. Natasha knew she'd been attempting to fix the tractor again [Clint hadn't been entirely lying when he'd asked Tony to take a look at it]. Even sweaty and hot, Laura managed to immediately put party planning first and foremost.

Natasha didn't know how she did it. Even she had to rest after difficult ops - but fixing a stubborn tractor was hardly at the same level of infiltrating foreign governments.

"Okay, so blue balloons?" Laura was making a list, seated at the table with Nathaniel across from her. Clint leaned over her shoulder, slapping down a coaster and putting a glass of ice water within reach. "Thanks."

Nathaniel gave it some thought. "Purple," he said with certainty.

"Alright. Nice choice." Clint held his hand up for a high five, which Nathaniel had to stand up on his chair to reach.

"I'll buy some Hawkeye balloons," Natasha offered. "There's gotta be some lying around from when the Avengers were the good guys."

"Ha, ha." Clint made a face at her. "The ones at my party were enough, thanks."

"What party?" Laura asked, looking over her shoulder at Clint.

"His birthday party," Natasha told her. "I got Tony to hack into his case file and find his birthday. We threw him a surprise party."

Laura laughed, shaking her head and bending down back over the list. "I'm sure that went over great."

Natasha shrugged, smiling at the memory. Tony's robots, salvaged from his Malibu house after the mess with the Mandarin, had been surprisingly enthusiastic about it. Or at least as enthusiastic as robots that appeared to be mildly sentient could be.

Vision had appeared for a brief while, but he'd left soon after. Natasha could guess why. She'd seen how uncomfortable Tony had gotten around their newest teammate.

[She hadn't personally seen the fallout, but she could guess that the billionaire missed his AI. She could say the same for herself - even if she'd only lived in the Tower for a brief time, FRIDAY just wasn't JARVIS.]

"What about a cake?" Laura asked Nathaniel, jolting Natasha back into the present.

"Chocolate," he answered immediately.

"M-hm. With, 'Happy Birthday to A Very Special Boy...'"

"Girl." Nathaniel corrected her.

All three of them froze.

Natasha was up off the chair in seconds and hugged the kid. "I knew you were Natasha," she said smugly. "Clint, you've got a true double agent here."

Clint, to his credit, recovered in seconds, laughing and borrowing Laura's pen to amend the statement that would end up in frosting. "Guess I taught you too well," he said dramatically.

Laura was smiling, too, and Nath - _Natasha_ was looking a little surprised at the response. "I thought you knew," she said.

"I definitely called that one," Natasha [senior] said before either Clint or Laura could reply.

"There's no call for _that_ much smugness." Clint, if he'd been holding a dish towel, might have tried to throw it at her. "Natasha - _baby_ Natasha-"

Natasha Jr. looked scandalized. "I'm not a baby."

"Yeah, hon, get it right." Laura said in a false mocking voice. "You two, clear out, we're trying to plan a party here." She waved the two of them away towards the door, and Clint reluctantly left, muttering something fakely rude under his breath.

Natasha caught up with him as he was moving towards the porch. "I _told_ you."

"No, you didn't, you just wanted a kid named after you."

"I knew they were going to be a Natasha."

"You're going to hold this over me forever, aren't you?"

* * *

 **Reviews, please? Also if you're wondering about the tidbit concerning Tony and Vision [and the mention of FRIDAY] I'd check out Of Empty Spaces by inukagome15. She handles it pretty well.**


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